Advanced Micro Devices unveiled a new notebook platform Wednesday featuring chips with multi-core processors, lower power consumption, and lower profiles to facilitate ultrathin product designs. Notebook makers are already lining up to introduce machines featuring AMD’s new chips before this year’s back-to-school shopping season.
AMD’s refreshed notebook platforms for consumers and business professionals now include multi-core Phenom II processors, DirectX 11 capabilities, and the chipmaker’s homegrown Vision technology, which AMD says offers visual clarity, vibrant colors, and support for seamless multi-monitor functionality. The goal is to enable notebook makers to deliver machines offering up to eight hours of battery life together with an outstanding visual experience and advanced 3-D gaming capabilities at a great price, said AMD Senior Vice President Nigel Dessau.
“With Vision technology from AMD, we are finally connecting how people use their PCs with the way people purchase them,” Dessau said. “Today, after little more than 200 days in market, our partners are introducing more Vision-based PCs than ever before — a testament to both the competitiveness of AMD platform technology and the simplified marketing approach.”
A New Vision for Notebook Makers
A total of 135 new mainstream and ultrathin notebooks from Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Toshiba and other OEMs based on AMD’s Vision technology are already slated to reach the market in advance of the back-to-school shopping season. As a result, AMD finally appears to be in a good position to improve its standing in the global notebook market.
According to IDC, Intel held an 87.8 percent share in the mobile PC processor segment in the first quarter of 2010, a gain of 0.5 percent. By contrast, rival AMD finished the quarter with 12.1 percent, a loss of 0.6 percent, according to the research firm’s analysts.
Matthew Wilkins, a principal analyst at iSuppli, views the PC industry response to AMD’s…